India’s Renewable energy Capacity Enhancement

Starting out with a target of just 20 GW by 2022, the country has now confidently made another massive target enhancement to install 227 GW of renewable energy capacity by 2022. This shows how far India has come in adopting the cleaner and greener sources of power. The country is using solar power in all walks of life ranging from solar on rooftops, big parks, street lights, microgrids, to small commercial products and transportation in India.

India has raised its renewable energy installation target from 175 GW to 227 GW by 2022. India has already attained an installed renewable energy capacity of 70 GW. The country currently ranks fifth in terms of renewable energy capacity with an installed capacity of 70 GW. The country has another 40 GW under tendering and construction phase. The target enhancement is a big blow to criticisms about India being able to achieve its 175 GW by 2022. With this addition, the country will rank amongst the top three nations (after USA and China), having made considerable investments in the sector.

The ministry believes that the country will overachieve its target owing to new schemes like floating solar, manufacturing-linked solar and offshore wind projects. Other than these, the government is also planning to promote solar application aggressively in rural parts of India with schemes like KUSUM scheme (Kisan Urja Suraksha evam Utthaan Mahaabhiyan) and SRISTI scheme.

Finance remains one of the biggest hurdles in the implementation of solar in India. The additional 52 GW capacity would require an additional investment of $50 billion over the coming years. Solar has become too mainstream in India and conventional power companies are already stressed.

There is a huge demand for power in India. The thermal power sector is feeling the pressure with falling tariffs and underutilization of power plants. Leading Indian private power companies are already seeking compensatory tariff which is being denied by the SC. In such situations, these companies are left with no other option than applying for bankruptcy protection. The NPA in power sector has almost doubled from the last year levels to INR 70,000 crore presently. The RBI’s ruling on stressed power assetsearlier this year has accentuated the pressure on the power generating and distributing companies. The said renewable energy target enhancement to 227 GW will further decrease the proportion of thermal generation in the overall power mix in India in future. The National Electricity Plan had projected the average utilization of thermal projects at 58% earlier. The draft tariff policy will also mandate renewable purchase obligation on states and distribution companies will have to purchase power from renewable energy projects.

Sneha Shah

I am Sneha, the Editor-in-chief for the Blog. We would be glad to receive suggestions, inputs & comments on GWI from you guys to keep it going! You can contact me for consultancy/trade inquires by writing an email to greensneha@yahoo.in